Three-month old Calvin Kruse was soon asleep as he sat in the arms of his mom, Courtney Kruse, during the Minnesota Republican State Convention in St. Cloud on Friday, May 18, 2012. Kruse is an alternate from Blue Earth County. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)

Kurt Bills after he won the U.S. Senate endorsement at the Republican Convention in St. Cloud, Friday, May 18, 2012. (Pioneer Press: Jean Pieri)

ST. CLOUD, Minn. — With a strong push from the Ron Paul forces, Minnesota Republicans endorsed state Rep. Kurt Bills of Rosemount to challenge U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

Bills, a first-term lawmaker and high school economics teacher, won the GOP’s official backing on the second ballot in a three-way race at the party’s state convention here Friday, May 18.

He received 64 percent of the ballots — 60 percent was required — to 21 percent for former state Rep. Dan Severson of Sauk Rapids and 15 percent for Pete Hegseth, a Minnesota Army National Guard captain from Stillwater.

“Finally we’re going to have an economics teacher in Washington,” Bills said in accepting the endorsement.

He campaigned almost exclusively on economic issues. Saying he’d “bring econ 101 to Washington,” he told the 2,135 convention delegates that he would aggressively tackle the “giants we face” — the national debt and deficits, entitlement spending and burdensome federal regulation.

He is the favorite of Paul’s supporters, who dominated at the convention. Bills was the first Minnesota legislator to endorse Paul for president, and the Texas congressman backed him in return.

Bills said he still supports Paul, even though the candidate has all but conceded the GOP presidential nomination to Mitt Romney.

Paul addressed the convention after Bills’ endorsement and praised the delegates for selecting a strong advocate for liberty. Paul was scheduled to host a $250-per-ticket fundraiser for Bills on Friday night.

But Bills said he appealed to a broad cross-section of Republicans. He was endorsed by 40 of his fellow Republican legislators representing all wings of the party. They worked the convention floor on his behalf.

Bills jumped off to a wide early lead, receiving 53 percent of the votes on the first ballot to 23 percent for Severson and 21 percent for Hegseth. Harold Shudlick finished fourth with 2 percent. After that, delegates seemed to recognize his lead was insurmountable.

In a speech to the convention, Bills criticized President Barack Obama and Klobuchar for failing to address the soaring costs of Social Security, Medicare and other entitlements and pledged that he would “face our giants.”

In a news conference later, he declined to spell out his prescriptions for ending deficits and reducing the debt — he promised details later. But he said a budget plan put forward by U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and another by conservative U.S. Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Jim DeMint of South Carolina are a “good start.”

Bills, 42, spoke in front of a big, blue school bus that he and his family plan to use to tour the state this summer. He and his wife, Cindy, have four children and own a home day care business.

Asked what he would do next, Bills said he’d go back to Rosemount and teach his first-hour macroeconomics class. He said he’d fulfill his teaching commitment through the end of the school year.

Bills will face a steep uphill race against Klobuchar. The first-term Democrat is one of the most popular senators in the nation and has amassed a $5.2 million campaign war chest.

Bills raised just $34,000 in the first quarter of this year — he didn’t enter the race until March 9 — but he said, “I think we can raise millions.”

Before the convention, Hegseth and Severson pledged to abide by the party’s endorsement, and state Republican Party Chairman Pat Shortridge said he is confident they would not challenge Bills in the Aug. 14 primary election.

“I have no doubt the party will quickly unify behind Kurt,” Shortridge said.

Frequent candidate Bob Carney of Minneapolis said he will challenge Bills for the Republican nomination. Carney got just six votes on the first ballot for endorsement.

Bill Salisbury has been a newspaper reporter since 1971. He started covering the Minnesota Capitol for the Rochester Post-Bulletin in 1975, joined the Pioneer Press as a general assignment reporter in 1977 and was assigned to the Capitol bureau in 1978. He was the paper's Washington correspondent from 1994 through 1999, when he returned to the Capitol bureau. Although he retired in January 2015, he continues to work at the Capitol part time.

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